Another weekend at the Kibbutz with the Ravids.
I invited one of my roommates, Rebecca, to join me for the weekend since the Ravids said it was okay to bring a friend. There would be quite a lot going on- especially that it's Anat's 25th birthday.
Rebecca hadn't been to Tel Aviv in a long, long, long time so we just walked around the central area. We met up with a couple of her friends from high school who were all in Tel Aviv for the summer - one doing research at Tel Aviv University, and the other two were camp counselors at their P2K (Partnership 2000) city's camp. We ate and shopped a bit on Shenkin Street- I was SOOOOOO tempted to shop but refrained myself (again). The sales here are unbelievable - the majority of the stores simply did 50% off... a few did 30% but everything was HALF OFF! I asked Rebecca if we could just leave the girls so I couldn't be tempted any more to get something for the Ravids since she asked if we could find something small. Fortunately, she was okay with that. She ended up just buying some chocolate crossiants.
Then we walked along the beach all the way from Allenby street up to the end of Ben Yehuda- probably at least a mile and half. I had never seen the beaches all along like this- now I have seen and walked all the way from Old Jaffa to the most northern beach. It was soooo hot and I wanted to be in the water badly but with the stitches still on my face, I couldn't just jump in.
(By the way, long story about the stitches- awful bureaucracy at Hadassah and Israelis have a different check-in procedure than Americans do)
We took a cab to the train station to meet Shlomi and Anat since Anat was taking a bus in later in the day. We drove back to the kibbutz. We chilled for a bit to cool off and while everyone prepared for dinner, I took Rebecca around a bit, including the horses.
Then we had a BBQ Shabbat dinner with Shlomi's brother's family. It was all mostly in Hebrew so I tried to pay attention. Rebecca's in Dalet, which is lower Advanced Hebrew... surprisely, she couldn't follow a lot. She said that the vocabulary was too much for her. They did switch to English on some important things that we needed to know- mostly about the Ravids' "adopted" Sudanese family who escaped from Darfur. It was a bit bone-chilling to hear Maa'yan talk about their plight and how close I was to know people from Darfur.
Shabbat morning, we had breakfast with Shlomi's cousins with lots of chocolate and French toast/crepes/sweet waffles... I think it was largely because of the two little girls. One of them had a birthday too. After breakfast, Linda and I took Rebecca to see the animal zoo. We learned some new Hebrew words for the animals- In Hebrew, they don't call the baby goat "kid" but gadya, not yaldi/ah as it means boy/girl. I even understood one of the rules (more like "suggestions" for the Israelis)- no petting free animals!
We had our lunch, mostly a mix of pasta and salads. Rebecca finally had some cream puffs that she couldn't have the night before (strictly kosher)- always yummy.
When the Ravids went to see their Sudanese friends, Rebecca and I walked over to visit the Shaloms, cousins of Zev's, who live just minutes away from the kibbutz. We were entertained by Shiri, Olga, and their father. Then Zev's nephew, whom I had never met, showed up. He was vacationing in Israel with his wife for six weeks. I wasn't too surprised that we both happened to be in Israel at the same time and met in Israel. That's the whole point of being in Israel, period- to play the Jewish Geography game. Rebecca and I mostly hung out with Shiri who told us all about some of the music that she listened to (Spanish/Latino), showed us her high school yearbook, and we talked about differences in Israel and America when it comes to viewing Judaism as a religion. It was a lot of fun seeing her. We saw Sarai, their other daughter, just for a bit.
We chilled at the kibbutz for a bit, had a third meal while watching the big concert in Tel Aviv on television, and then just headed home on the bus.
I think this weekend was unusually more difficult for me because a lot of the conversations were in Hebrew and trying to recouncile with myself as I was trying to grab hold to my last moments in Israel before going back to the States. The fact that even Rebecca, who understands a lot of Hebrew, could not understand a lot of what was being said opened my eyes to seeing how much more difficult Hebrew is than I expected. Linda told us that it took her two years to be fluent in Hebrew but even longer to be a willing regular participant in conversations. I was thinking, even when I make it to Dalet, it still won't be enough! Hebrew isn't anything like the Romance languages which basically takes less than a year to be fluent or Russian which takes just under two years. This is definitely a factor to consider for my graduate school application process. I also now understand why it takes people who do non-American history much longer to finish their PhDs because they have to study several languages, some in depth. It is amazing that I am willing to work hard in Hebrew and to take my time with it to ensure that I have it down pat before advancing. Mom calls it maturity. Maybe, but I think it's also because I am in Israel and I eventually want to be able to speak and to write well. Also, the Israelis know its a more difficult language and are much more likely to speak English to you... and who wants that? In any case, my second test grade went up from my first one- to a grade that I hadn't seen in a long time- to a 75!!!!
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